The OKS Magazine
No. 46 • Autumn 2017
LOURDES PILGRIMAGE Julia Tsavellas assists pilgrims at the famous shrine
THE SOUND OF SURPRISE Bill Browning reviews King’s Week Jazz
MAY REUNION The Haymakers reunited and other tales
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page 12
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Tristan McConnell in Mogadishu
Image© Carl de Souza @ AFP
WRITING STORIES ABOUT THE WORLD
OKS Offcuts • Issue No. 46 • Autumn 2017
In this issue The contributors to this issue of Offcuts come from six different decades – from Claude Fielding (1940-41) to Julia Tsavellas (2014-16). Their articles are, we hope, informative, entertaining and even inspiring. You can read about what it is like to report from Africa, go on a pilgrimage, venture into the classroom and be on the road with Noel and Gertie. Our King’s Week feature has a jazzy flavour in recognition of forty consecutive Jazz Concerts, as well as an even longer tradition of more or less informal performances. It may surprise some to learn that jazz at King’s dates back to the 1920s. A centenary looms. OKS events included a noisy May Reunion of those here before 1965. The refurbished and cleverly expanded Tradescant House celebrated its 40th birthday and the OKS Lunch honoured a particularly distinguished group of staff leavers. For the Record has news of OKS writers, lawyers, livery masters, teachers, musicians and scientists. You are encouraged to let Elaine Lynch know what you have been up to. The obituaries are tributes to lives well lived. A special mention must go to Judy Woodley. Judy ran girls’ games for 27 years, playing a central role in establishing co-education at King’s, and taught several generations of OKS to dance. Peter Henderson (KSC Archivist and Acting Editor)
Dates for the diary 30 November 2017 OKS Christmas Drinks The Wine Cellar, The Vintry, Abchurch Yard, London
4 February 2018 OKS v KSC Football Birley’s Playing Field
5 December 2017 OKS Careers Talk School Room, KSC
15 February 2018 The Cantuarian (OKS Masonic) Lodge Meeting London
7 December 2017 The Cantuarian (OKS Masonic) Lodge Meeting London
12 March 2018 Canterbury Pilgrims AGM & Supper London Rowing Club
10 December 2017 The King’s School Christmas Concert The Shirley Hall, KSC
18 March 2018 The Legacy Club Luncheon KSC, Canterbury
9 January 2018 OKS AGM & Committee Meeting The Cavalry & Guards Club, Piccadilly, London 2 OKS OFFCUTS Autumn 2017
10 May 2018 OKS Jazz The 606 Club, London
From the OKS President Charlotte Pragnell looks back on OKS events in 2017 From the Headmaster OKS, HMC and the Precincts project
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News from King’s news p4 Buildings and staff old and new, inspectors, and overseas tours Tristan McConnell reporting Being a foreign correspondent in Africa Lourdes Pilgrimage Julia Tsavellas assists pilgrims at the famous shrine Teach First An interview with India Lyons
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features
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careers
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arts p10 Touring Days The on-the-road diary of producer & director Matthew Townshend
The Sound of Surprise Bill Browning reviews King’s Week Jazz The May Reunion OKS Tony Budgen looks back OKS Events King’s Week Lunch and Tradescant 40th Reunion A Fortunate Marriage Our ‘Unknown OKS’ is James Gunman Sporting Round-Up OKS Rugby, Golf, Hockey, Rowing and Sailing
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events
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archives
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Offcuts and For The Record are edited by Stephen Woodley (Common Room 1969-98), assisted by an Editorial Committee of Felicity Lyons, Chair (SH 1975-77), Peter Henderson (Common Room 1969-), and Kirsty Mason with further support from Paul Pollak (Common Room 1950-88). All information for publication should be sent to Elaine Lynch (etl@ kings-school.co.uk). Tel: 01227 595672. Unless otherwise credited, photographs are by Matt McArdle, Kirsty Mason or School Archives. This publication has been produced by Lee Rigley at the King’s School Press.
The OKS Magazine
News
From the OKS President Continuity and Change are at the heart of King’s and therefore at the heart of the OKS Association as well. As ever, the Association held its annual OKS King’s Week Lunch in the marquee on the Green Court, where we reflected on the tremendous contribution to the School’s life made by certain retiring members of staff (p16). The summer also saw the following OKS sporting events: the OKS reunited a strong team for the Halford Hewitt, Tennis and Hockey took on King’s School teams in some tough battles, while OKS Rugby held a memorial game for Bernie Cocksworth and in doing so helped push donations over 25K for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. This year’s professional networking event was for those who operate in the financial services industry, where Pete Davies provided some thought-provoking reflections to initiate discussion.
But there is also change in the Association: we have a new OKS Coordinator, Rachael DevlinQuinn, and Ben Reid has joined the OKS Coordinator Rachael Committee Devlin-Quinn as VicePresident and Veronica Olszowska as Year Group Rep. The Association is active on so many different fronts, and we would welcome further OKS to join the Association’s committee to help steer the organisation through the coming years. Charlotte Pragnell
From the Headmaster successful QI TV series has found new life through QI boot camps for adults! – were both OKS.
I remember Stephen Woodley kindly and gently explaining to me when I began as Headmaster of King’s, that the sense of being an active OKS goes from 18 to 89 (more accurately into one’s 90s as with Claude’s sailing in the ‘Round the Island race’!) That spirit pervades all the wonderful OKS events and reunions Marie and I so much enjoy attending and hosting. The engagement of the OKS community in the life of the School is very real, as the promotions of Mat Lister and Rachael Heskins to become HsMs this September show. At the recent HMC Conference in Belfast, I was struck that the two key-note speakers – Jonathan Powell, inspiring as he narrated the difficult path of mediation towards achieving the Good Friday agreement; and John Lloyd, outlining how his highly www.oks.org.uk
The School is in very good form this autumn term and I am delighted to report that the glorious autumnal sunshine has helped bring sporting success as the 1st XV (which is like Linacre under the direction of Mat Lister) recorded an exciting win over Eastbourne College at Birley’s – and the Under 16 girls hockey XI won the Kent Cup.
project: preparing the Mint Yard for the new Science building by laying down cabling and utility pipes, opening up the basement of the Shirley Hall to become a coffee bar (to be known as ‘Chums’ in honour of two OKS brothers) and a new Careers and university centre as well as further English classrooms, and refurbishing classrooms right around the Departments. Alongside this, away from the heartland, the contractors are applying the finishing touches to the new Mitchinson’s in St Radigunds, whilst beginning to dig, restore and embellish the Malthouse which will soon become our Performing Arts Centre. Exciting times at Canterbury! Peter Roberts
Whilst the Cathedral is very busily engaged in re-leading the whole of the nave roof and building a new Visitors’ centre on the south side, the School has embarked on the Precincts Autumn 2017 OKS OFFCUTS 3
News
News from King's From the Common Room Five houses are under new leadership. Mark Smiley (Carlyon), George Harrison (Marlowe) and Tim Waite (Galpin’s), succeed, respectively, Al Holland, Simon Anderson and Jon Hutchings, and two OKS, Mat Lister (MR 1997-99) and Rachael Heskins (MT 1993-98), succeed James Outram in Linacre and Julia Gorman in Jervis. Rachael is the daughter of Roy White, sometime housemaster of Marlowe: a unique family double. James Outram is the new Registrar, succeeding Graham Sinclair. The new Senior Chaplain is Lindsay Collins, following Fred Arvidsson. She comes from Sherborne School. Al Holland will be Head of the Sixth Form from
School Inspection A team from the Independent Schools Inspectorate visited in March and from their vantage point in the Durnford Library ruled the School ‘excellent’. The Inspectors, led by the former High Master of Manchester Grammar School, were required to look at Regulatory Compliance as well as Educational Quality. The Focused Compliance Inspection report noted that the School met the necessary standards for boarding schools. In the Educational Quality report all concerned were pleased to see that the “pupils achieve an excellent balance between the academic and the extra-curricular dimensions of their very busy lives at the school”. The full reports are available on the Inspectorate’s website. 4 OKS OFFCUTS Autumn 2017
January (after a sabbatical term), Jonathan (MR 1970-74). She will be in place of Charlotte Cornell, who teaching RS, Philosophy and English. leaves to work with the new Member of Parliament for Canterbury; Mat Lister and Rachael Heskins Owen MoelwynHughes will hold the fort for the Michaelmas Term. Begoña Garcés Ramón takes over the Spanish Department. New members of staff include Saskia Barnard (MT, HH 200813), daughter of
War Memorials
In May the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport decided to add the School’s war memorial cross to the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. The memorial is now listed at Grade II. This is a result of Historic England’s project to mark the centenary of the Great War. Also recognised is the Kent War Memorial in the Memorial Garden next to Meister Omers. Both memorials were designed by Sir Herbert Baker, perhaps best known for his work at Tyne Cot. His plans for the School (illustrated here) included the creation of the Memorial Court.
plaque was dedicated on 5 October when the Shells had their annual visit to the Western Front.
A plaque honouring OKS killed in the Great War is now in St George’s Church, Ypres. The School is very grateful to David Loveridge (MO/LN 1950-56) through whose good offices this project has been completed. The The OKS Magazine
News sire A Streetcar Named De
King’s
Week
The 66th King’s Week was as full and varied as ever. The twilightthemed Serenade included a glass ensemble and the witty ‘King’s Anthem for the 21st Century’
with words by Liz Pidoux. Drama featured A Streetcar Named Desire in the Mint Yard and Charlotte Cornell’s farewell production of Everyman. In addition to the jazz (see pages 12-13), there were numerous musical events as well as Evensong in the Cathedral by Madrigalia. Art in Blackfriars and all around the Precincts
was supplemented by an enthralling exhibition entitled ‘Reflections – Past and Present’ from the Artist in Residence, photographer Mike Owen. The Green Court was a hive of activity, with several musical events in the marquee, as well as teas and ice creams, bicycles, science, chess and poetry, and a display by the bee-keeping group with the sale of elegantly labelled King’s School honey. The Week ended in the Shirley Hall with a rousing performance of the spectacular SaintSaens Organ Symphony.
Chums The Pupils’ Social Centre under the Shirley Hall, originally opened in 1996, has been given a major make-over. It is renamed ‘Chums’ in honour of Desmond and Grant Chum (GR 1986-91 and SH 1989-94), whose generosity has enabled this work to be undertaken. Elsewhere the first stages of the Mint Yard Science Project are under way. The Chemistry laboratories have been moved from the Mitchinson’s basement into the Maths and IT classrooms adjoining School House (in the former Gymnasium), with IT now joining Careers next to ‘Chums’. The temporary classrooms erected beside the Shirley Hall will be used while the building programme continues over the next few years.
Tours to South Africa, Hong Kong and Japan A party of Under 17 hockey players went to South Africa in July. There were two teams and the girls played against St Mary’s Girls’ School, Waverley in Johannesburg, Durban Girls’ High School, Pietmaritzburg Girls’ High School, Northlands Girls’
www.oks.org.uk
High School, Durban and Durban Girls’ College. They won five, drew two and lost three of the matches. Among the many cultural highlights was a visit to the HluhluweImfolozi Park (pictured). In August, a senior rugby party (1st and 2nd XVs)
went to Hong Kong and Japan. The tour opened at the King’s Park Rugby ground against Hong Kong RFU Select XVs before moving to Japan, where the opponents were Wakasa East High School at Sania Park, Sugadaira, Seiko Gakuin
School, on their brand new 3G astroturf pitch at Shizuoka, and Yoshida High School at the Yokohama Country & Athletic Club. In all the squad managed four wins, a draw and two losses.
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Features
Writing stories about the world Tristan McConnell (MR 1990-95) reports from Nairobi, Kenya.
My route to foreign reporting was roundabout. I left King’s with a mixed bag of A-levels that included both English and sciences and, still unsure of what I wanted to do, studied anthropology at Cambridge University since it kept my options wide open. While there I wrote a field researchbased undergraduate thesis on the recent political history of Namibia, in southern Africa, which involved going there and 6 OKS OFFCUTS Autumn 2017
Tristan interviews former Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
Copyright Pete Muller
I
n my years as a foreign correspondent in Africa I’ve snuck into war zones with rebel groups, hung out with child soldiers, interviewed warlords, dodged (and occasionally chased) Al Qaeda gunmen, investigated war crimes, reported on famines and mass displacements, covered dozens of elections, flown on small planes into tiny villages and on helicopters over thick jungle, I’ve watched nomads dance in the desert, peered into a lava lake from the rim of a volcanic crater, met the guardian of the ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu and an eccentric American who styles himself the Machine Gun Preacher, I’ve seen elephants tramping through the swamps of northeast Congo and reported on the gunmen trying to kill them and the rangers fighting to protect them, I’ve investigated drug trafficking, organised crime and corruption. Needless to say, it’s been enormous fun.
talking to people rather than spending still more time in the library. It was subsequently published in an American academic journal and while I loved the anthropological process and seeing my words in print I wondered at the point of writing jargon-filled academic papers that would only be read by other students and academics, if anyone. Foreign reporting, it seemed to me, could be a kind of anthropology for the masses, a way to describe and interpret the world around us. Of course, most of the time it’s just a list of things that went bang and the awful things people do to each other, but at its best it achieves more than that, contributing to an understanding of why The OKS Magazine
Copyright Pete Muller
Features
A market in Mogadishu, Somalia. Note the flak jacket and the security guard in sunglasses, one of Tristan’s six-man armed security team.
things happen and providing an empathy bridge between readers and subjects. As political insularism and creeping xenophobia take hold in Europe and the US that mission of finding common ground and understanding strikes me as more crucial than ever. I started out as a freelance correspondent in Uganda, then moved to Ghana and finally to Kenya. I’ve written for a range of mostly British and American newspapers and magazines, including The Times, Economist, Monocle, Foreign Policy, The London Review of Books, New York, Harper’s and The New Yorker.
Copyright Marc Hofer
Journalism is changing and in many ways for the worse, or at least for the
n. A sudden sandstorm in Yida, South Suda www.oks.org.uk
more difficult. The advertising-based newspaper business model is broken and no one knows how to fix it, pay rates have dropped and the willingness to invest in the expense of foreign reporting has diminished (I commonly spend more – of someone else’s money, of course – reporting a story than I earn writing it). Nowadays, it’s rare for a British newspaper to have a single staff correspondent on the entire African continent. It wasn’t that way 12 years ago when I started living and working here. But at the same time new digital publications and new ways of telling stories are constantly emerging. Increasingly, it is foundations and grants that pay for the kind of in-depth foreign reporting that is most challenging and revealing. No one gets into journalism to get rich, but when you’re doing it, it feels more like a life than a job: I can’t imagine doing anything else. If you think foreign reporting might be your thing, there are a couple of big secrets about working in unpredictable or unstable places. The first is, there’s nothing particularly clever about it: you go
somewhere, talk to people and write it down. Curiosity, a plausible manner (as the journalist Nick Tomalin put it) and a decent grasp of grammar are your most important tools, and a pen and notebook. Then there’s conflict and crisis reporting, which I also do a lot of, and the secret here is that it’s pretty easy. Once you’ve sorted the logistics and calmed your nerves, there is so much going on and so much heightened emotion all around that writing a compelling story isn’t hard at all. I think it’s much more tricky to write grippingly about, say, the latest business development. Extreme situations make for effortlessly powerful stories. A lengthy account I wrote a few years ago about a terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, where I live, is an example of this. For what it’s worth, my advice is to develop a thick skin so the constant story rejections don’t get you down, save as much money as you can, pick a country you think you might like and be interested in, meet a few editors before you leave and then move there, for at least a year or two. And get started young: this isn’t an old person’s game. @t_mcconnell http://www.tristanmcconnell.co.uk/ Autumn 2017 OKS OFFCUTS 7
Features
A Pilgrimage to Lourdes Julia Tsavellas (MT 2014-2016) writes about her participation in the Ampleforth pilgrimage. I’ll admit, a few months ago, the mention of a pilgrimage would have inspired in me an anticipation of boredom and monotony which I would have had very little energy to confront. Baptised Greek Orthodox and brought up chiefly as a Catholic, upon reaching my late teens, life’s adversities, reports of indiscriminate murder dominating the news coupled with the cynicism of the superficiallycharged 21st Century, represented a major wobble in my faith. Whilst I recognised that any balanced individual ought to be cognizant of both sides of the argument for and against the existence of God, I was ever troubled by the nostalgic memory of the unadulterated belief in, and seemingly potent connection I had once felt with, God as a child. Fellow OKS Maddy Mills encouraged me to join the Ampleforth pilgrimage to Lourdes and, sure enough, I felt a compulsion to face whatever awaited me, no matter how uncertain. The pilgrimage principally consisted of looking after assisted pilgrims (abbreviated to APs) in a medical home with respect to waking them up, taking them to and from various ceremonies, going for coffee together and helping them at bedtime. However, those among the more experienced pilgrims I knew were assigned the role of ‘care buddy’ for a particular pilgrim. Almost immediately it became clear that the relationship between myself and any given AP entailed a mutual exchange; while I was supposedly in the position of ‘carer’ and thus predisposed to bestow and confer, I felt as though I was providing help in a mere physical sense. Instead they helped me profoundly on an emotional level, revealing to me insurmountable courage in the stories they shared, uncovering a love within me of which I didn’t know I was capable, and allowing me to witness the unconditional selflessness of other pilgrims. A highlight for me was a ceremony known as the ‘Mass of the Anointing of the Sick’ in which we, as helpers, were able to place our hand on the shoulder of an AP in a gesture of support as they were anointed by a priest, to bring them comfort, peace and strength. Upon looking around, I was moved to see a vast 8 OKS OFFCUTS Autumn 2017
Julia (pictured left) with Blanca Sanz-Magallon from Ampleforth College. Ampleforth organised the pilgrimage.
crowd of people partaking in an outward demonstration of unity. Witnessing such warmth did, to a large extent, restore my faith, not least in humanity. It is extremely telling that even a few atheists partake in the pilgrimage, testimony to its rewarding nature; all religious aspects considered, I’ve made lifelong friends, gained perspective and grown in confidence.
Moving forward, not only do I hope to return to the Ampleforth pilgrimage (and rope in a few family members), I shall endeavour to act as a pilgrim in helping those in need in everyday situations, acting as a braver, kinder and more proactive individual on the journey to self-betterment.
The OKS Magazine
TEACH FIRST
Careers
India Lyons (LX 2005-10) joined the Teach First Programme after graduating from St Andrews University with a degree in English Literature. Her mother and former OKS President, Felicity Lyons (SH 1975-77) thought that India's experience may be helpful to OKS considering Teach First and asked her a few questions on behalf of Offcuts. What attracted you to the idea of Teach First? I was intrigued by their mission to reduce educational inequality in the UK, along with the exceptional leadership training offered by the two-year programme. How did you find the application process? Rigorous! Fortunately Teach First assigns each applicant with a “recruiter” who ensures they have the support they need throughout the process. The online application required me to reflect on how I had demonstrated the capabilities that Teach First considers essential for the Leadership Development Programme (LDP). Following this, I was invited to attend an assessment day, which involved a combination of interviews, group tasks and a pre-prepared lesson. Finally, following the offer to join the Programme, I had to complete a Subject Knowledge Audit to demonstrate that I had a clear understanding of my subject’s place in the curriculum and my responsibilities in delivering English to KS3 and KS4 students.
How does the training work and was it sufficient to prepare you for the classroom? The LDP begins with a 6-week training programme called the Summer Institute. This involves a placement in a school where participants deliver a series of lessons with detailed observation feedback and undergo an intensive teacher’s training course. During this time, participants also complete the first of six written assignments that result in a PGCE qualification at the end of the first year of teaching. For me, this intensive style of training worked well as I found it much easier to apply the training practically while teaching full time. However, it does not suit everybody. I would advise anyone considering applying for Teach First to consider which styles of learning have best suited them previously and whether completing the PGCE year at www.oks.org.uk
university may better prepare them for a teaching role. Describe a typical day in your school. I arrive at 7.30am and print resources for my lessons. Lessons begin at 8.30am and are 100 minutes long. After break, I see my tutor group for 20 minutes where I have discussions regarding any behavioural or academic issues with them and deliver any notices. This year, I took on the role of Challenge Coordinator, which involves developing a programme to promote high aspirations in our most able pupils, so most days I am involved in after-school activities been 3pm and 4pm. These range from a creative writing workshop to music clubs and a Latin class that I introduced this year in the hope that the school will introduce Latin to the curriculum. After 4pm, I either have meetings or use this time to plan lessons or mark work. As an English teacher, the marking load is substantial and I often don’t leave school until around 7pm. What influenced your decision to move to a different career after the two years? When I started the LDP, I was unclear as to whether I wanted to pursue teaching as a career or not. Though I have learned a huge amount from my experience in teaching and I have very much enjoyed working with children, I realise that there are other ways I can have an impact on educational inequality. I plan to use my experience to work with social responsibility departments in other organisations to advise on how best to support schools struggling with
ever-decreasing funding. Teach First has opened my eyes to the breadth of ways in which one can improve the opportunities we offer to all young people, both within and beyond the classroom. What advice would you offer to OKS considering Teach First? I would definitely recommend the LDP to OKS for the skills you develop and the amount you learn, not only about teaching, but about communication in a wide variety of challenging scenarios. It is great preparation for anything you might choose to do subsequently! What do you think the Teach First programme has achieved? Teach First has a noble vision and has had a significant impact on our educational system but the challenges the system faces won’t be solved simply by increasing the number of teachers in our schools. There are issues that go much deeper than a teacher shortage and which are partly responsible for it. As long there is disparity in the quality of free education available in this country, dependent upon where families can afford homes, we will not have a successful or fair system. Teach First addresses educational policy and supplies more teachers for our schools but it is merely a plaster on a wound that is too big for one organisation with good intentions to heal. In its defence, however, every teacher who has completed the LDP and moved into a different industry helps to broaden the discourse around educational inequality. Autumn 2017 OKS OFFCUTS 9
Arts
Back on the road again Producer and Director Matthew Townshend’s (LN 1974-79) many shows, seen in theatres across the UK, include ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, ‘Tomfoolery’ and the fiftieth anniversary tour of ‘Salad Days’. Since February 2017 he has been back on the road again, catching up with his revival of Sheridan Morley’s play ‘Noel and Gertie’, which charts the relationship between Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, two of the greatest stars of the twentieth century. Sheridan Morley, who died ten years ago, was also Coward’s biographer.
Touring days, touring days, What ages it seems to be Since the landlady in Norwich Served a mouse up in the porridge … Noel Coward: Touring Days
February
Rehearsal rooms in London are booked out months in advance but, by chance, a reservation has fallen through and we can spend both weeks back at Toynbee Hall near Aldgate. The top floor dance studio is wonderful, light and spacious but three floors up concrete stairs, which makes life hard as furniture, props and bits of the set start to arrive. Over the weekend the building fills with eager young hopefuls auditioning for the National Youth Theatre. “I was in the NYT” I tell them, namedropping contemporaries: Daniel Craig, Colin Firth, Lisa Tarbuck. They look at me blankly. I worry about the likely box office success of our play about two stars born when Queen Victoria was on the throne.
March
Saturday 18th 6:15 am: the Caledonian Sleeper pulls away leaving me in the drizzle at Pitlochry station. Here’s a tip:
it’s not worth saving the price of a bunk on the overnight from Euston to spend 9½ hours in a seat probably designed and built the year Gertrude Lawrence died (1952). Thank heavens the front door at Fishers Hotel opens to my tentative push. It’s only recently reopened after a near disastrous fire, as the night porter reminds me. I catch up on some sleep in an armchair before heading to the theatre. By midnight the rain is pelting down. I’m helping the crew by driving the truck three hours south to Livingston outside Edinburgh. In the road works at the river crossing I nearly clip the traffic cones as I look left to catch sight of the Forth Bridge, magnificent in the night.
April
The show is getting nice reviews and ecstatic audience feedback but the business is slow. I think with longing of the full houses we had with Tomfoolery. Ahead, Eastbourne is looking healthier – a few good weeks in theatres like the Devonshire Park can save a whole tour. This afternoon I’m on my way to Sale outside Manchester from where I will again take the wheel and drive to Heysham for the 2:15 am ferry to the Isle of Man.
Matthew Townshend with company in Tomfoolery in 2012
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The OKS Magazine
Arts
Noel and Gertie in rehearsal February 2017
5:30 am: Douglas: another sleepless night, curled up in the ‘premium lounge’. I declined the offer of a shared berth, thinking that there was no lorry driver on Earth who would want to hear me snore our way across the Irish Sea. The island is celebrating its annual Music, Dance and Drama festival; parking the truck between cars packed with small ballerinas is tricky work.
May
Saturday 13th: Theatre Royal, Windsor. The parking here is worse than anywhere; it’s Windsor horse week and the town is choked with Range Rovers and horse boxes. Sheridan’s daughters and grandchildren – who have never seen any of his plays before – come to the matinee. Between keeping a look out for parking wardens I wander the downstairs corridors, hunting for our poster from Salad Days in 2006: www.oks.org.uk
Touring days, touring days, Far back into the past we gaze … I have become the theatre ghost, Carter – the black-and-white photographs of past productions seem more real to me than the show which I can hear through the walls: Martin Jarvis as Hamlet, farces with Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray, many productions with Tom Conti and a shot of a young Helena Bonham Carter – I suspect the only face that might be recognised by those NYT auditionees. It’s the penultimate show of the tour. In the last ten minutes of the second half a mother and her daughter come out of the stalls. The little girl is laughing or crying, I’m not sure which; “Are you all right?” I ask. Yes, they’re enjoying it very much; they tell me they have come with Grandpa who is battling cancer. In the play, when Noel Coward learns the news
of Gertie’s death the actor has the line “It was cancer and she was only fifty-four”; apparently Grandpa, with great good humour, has shouted out ‘Thanks a lot, mate!”, which has sent granddaughter into fits of laughter. It’s a truly Peter Kay moment, worthy of ‘Phoenix Nights’. I’m reminded both how close is Comedy to Tragedy but also how Theatre is lifeaffirming, even at the worst of times. “We used to tip the dressers every Friday night And passed it over lightly when they came in tight But somehow to us it seemed all right, Those wonderful touring days.”
Image Credit: Ashe Scott-Lockyer/Peter Clark Autumn 2017 OKS OFFCUTS 11
Arts Creativity in clothing c1957: Christopher Bayston, David Farrant, Roger Browne and Steve Docksey.
THE SOUND OF SURPRISE – King’s Week Jazz 2017 Bill Browning (Common Room 1992-2006), jazz aficionado and former King’s Week Manager, went to all this year’s events. He reflects on what he heard and places it in the wider context of the history of jazz.
Historically jazz music evolved from primitivism to modernity so quickly that it gained and lost a mass audience within half a century and outside the concert hall non-enthusiasts nowadays tend to hear it only in lifts. However, for musicians jazz remains the most
, Jazz on Kristina Rhodes 2017 et ns a Summer Su
testing and rewarding of musical forms, requiring discipline and skill while allowing musical self-expression more than any other. Musicians, therefore, love jazz, and in a school like King’s, a school with a remarkable musical tradition and with exceptional teachers of music at every level, it continues to flourish. It is not surprising that when King’s Week started in 1952 it would not be long before music in ‘the jazz idiom’ would be performed, nor that there would be complaints about performing ‘American folk-music’. A reviewer commented that ‘the usual fault of amateur music in the jazz idiom, that of lack of technique, was noticeable’. Not nowadays. There were few problems with technique during King’s Week 2017, during which there was a concert by a saxophone ensemble and three jazz events. The level of skill was very high throughout (a neutral asked me, ‘Is this really just a school band?’) To single out individuals is inequitable but as far as skill levels are concerned it is worth commenting on two of them.
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The OKS Magazine
Arts The chords of John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ – a cycle built on major thirds that was to become fundamental in modern jazz – are so complex that the pianists on several original Coltrane recordings can be heard struggling with them. Siegfried Aylward not only negotiated the chord changes on his saxophone but he did so with assurance. He played superbly throughout the concerts.
Jazz Concert 2017
Kristina Rhodes shuffled to the microphone with a double bass like someone ducking the paparazzi but she played and sang ‘Moanin’ with a bluesy intensity that would have impressed Dinah Washington. Her Jaco Pastorius tribute in the Jazz Concert showed the breadth of her abilities. Many other musicians performed with authority and flair. Solos had sometimes been learnt beforehand, but not always, and to hear and see young people playing with such assurance and such delight in the self-expressiveness that is unique to jazz was a joy too. The hardened professionals who made up the OKS trio (Hector Page, Edmund Whitehead and Robbie Ellison) were three stalwarts of King’s jazz over the years. They played a superb set of jazz standards but turned out to be less hardened than they needed to be, for an hour playing an unfamiliar instrument left blood dripping down the double bass from the bassist’s fingers. The high point of the jazz week was the Jazz Concert, partly because the sevenstrong saxophone section was anchored by a baritone sax. This gave resonance and depth to the band, a baritone-based structure that defined the sound of the incomparable Duke Ellington Orchestra for fifty years. As the band played the swing became more assured, the ensemble playing more compact, and as confidence grew the sound of the jazz band was better and better, with a fabulous forcefulness that moved the chairs in the Shirley Hall back an inch or two when the band hit the big notes. There was delicacy too, and some assured singing, and there was a wide range of material. In the long view of the School’s history, I have witnessed relatively little, nothing like as much, for instance, as the piece of jazz rock through which are written the words ‘Roger’ and ‘Mallion’. I do remember, however, a girl tap-dancing on a soundboard to the piano playing of Nick Tattersall, a current member of www.oks.org.uk
staff popping up as an invited saxophone soloist when he was a non-OKS student, the wonderful Mike Westbrook Orchestra performing in 1997, and Ivo Neame, whose group Phronesis – a ‘super-group’ according to The Guardian – is now almost as famous globally as Mike Westbrook. None of this could have happened without the music staff, the teachers and musical directors, who have provided the stimulus, the context, the discipline, the example and the excitement to make this fertile soil and to connect it to all the other forms of music being practised in the school. The earliest reference to jazz at King’s was to a ‘rag concert’ in 1922 when the
band ‘were all dressed in the traditional pyjamas, but the head-dress varied from top-hats to fezes’. By 1953 the ‘lack of coloured sweaters testified that good musicianship and material had at last overcome the gimmick, used as a concealment of faulty playing,’ so order was being restored; when jazz was protest music (from the Aldermaston Marches to Black Power) it was important to be creative in clothing. This year, the Modern Jazz Group wore formal dresses and suits and they were better dressed than the audience. Jazz has become musically and socially respectable but does that mean it has become tame and predictable? Never. It remains, as Whitney Balliett named it, ‘the sound of surprise’. Autumn 2017 OKS OFFCUTS 13
Events Haymakers reunited
May Reunion Tony Budgen (SH 1954-59) was our reporter at the ‘day of nostalgia’ for those at King’s before 1965. Decibels… turn it down! This was (nearly) the message for the 100 or so OKS attending the Reunion of leavers up to and including 1965 on 6 May 2017. Our age range started from 65 with the most senior being 91 and there was an apology from a 1941 leaver who must be 94 or so. The venue was St Augustine’s, new to us as it was not acquired until the 1970s. A large, light and airy marquee (so different from the canvas monsters erected on the Green Court for Speech Days in our time with their seemingly countless guy ropes and tent pegs) on Tudor Lawn sheltered us on a cold, damp and misty day. Although the weather was unkind, the drinks reception provided a very warm welcome and an opportunity to mingle and catch up with contemporaries. It was surprising – and humbling – to be recognised by members of the 1958 Lattergate Waiting House where I was House Monitor in my final year. Called to order (with some difficulty because of the noise we were making) we took our seats at tables perfectly laid as 14 OKS OFFCUTS Autumn 2017
for a banquet, with elegant “high level” floral decorations making it possible to see and converse with people on the opposite side of the table. A generous welcome by the Headmaster included suitably ironic reference to the outdoor games we could watch later in the afternoon. Then the King’s School Latin Grace was said so we could partake of the buffet lunch with a menu devised and prepared by the School’s own catering team: this, together with the service, would surpass many a high-level event at London’s top hotels.
It was, naturally, a day for nostalgia. This was enhanced by a number of photographs from the Archive – the Royal Visit of 1946, a Field Day Parade, rowing at Pluck’s Gutter and even one of the Dining Hall in full use in the late 1950s: this last triggered memories of the then catering manager, Miss Speiss, whose generously proportioned overall was, it is alleged, once described on a laundry list as a purple bell tent; there was also the occasion when a Linacre Matron arrived for breakfast having all too clearly forgotten to put her skirt on.
The OKS President, Charlotte Pragnell, spoke of us and our contemporaries as “Shirley’s Boys” who could be said to have laid the foundations for what the School has now become. She eloquently described her personal appreciation of the exquisite surroundings of the Green Court and the north view of the Cathedral – a privilege and memory shared by all of us OKS. The apology from the 1941 leaver wondered whether there might be any “Haymakers” present – and indeed there were more than enough to field a team.
Great thanks to the OKS co-ordinators for the splendid arrangements and to the Catering Team for the superb lunch and service. To round off a happy day, I walked through the Precincts to the Green Court and spent a few minutes in the Memorial Chapel. Later that evening at home, contented, I recalled the words of the Night Watchman’s Mint Yard Curfew – “11 o’clock – Fine night – All’s Well”. Exactly. The OKS Magazine
Events
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Events
Leavers L-R: Kirsty, Paul & Quini, Diana, Marianne, David & Jane (back), Peter & Vivienne (front) Simon & Gill, Stephen & Jan.
King's Week Lunch 2017 King’s Week Lunch inevitably brings the sunshine and the OKS out in equal measure. The occasion on Sunday 2 July was deserving of the fantastic turnout as we enjoyed the beautiful Deanery garden and a rendition of the classic Every Time We Say Goodbye by the King’s Men. This was an apt choice as we said goodbye and thank you to some giants of the King’s Community who together had notched up 253 years of service to the School. The leavers included Peter Wells (Headmaster of JKS) and his wife Vivienne (JKS Registrar); Simon
Anderson (Head of PE, Geography, Housemaster); David Arnott (Head of Chemistry); Paul Newbury (Head of Spanish, Former Housemaster); Stephen Graham (History, Former Housemaster of a recordequalling three houses); Marianne Whittingdale (Senior Matron); Kirsty Mason (OKS Coordinator); Diana Francis (Geography and History of Art); Graham Sinclair (Director of Drama and KSC Registrar). Lunch on the Green Court ended with presentations to the leavers and a toast: “To all those who serve the King’s School and the OKS Association.” Image Credit: Martin Mayer (SH 1959-63)
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The OKS Magazine
Events
Tradescant 40th Anniversary Reunion Four Tradescant Housemasters A warm sunny June day saw four Housemasters come together to celebrate 40 years of Tradescant House. Mike and Pru Wetherilt, Peter and Elizabeth Dix, Stephen and Jan Graham and current Housemaster Adam Stennett were joined by over 60 OKS and family members. A champagne reception on the Trad Terrace was followed by a delicious lunch in the Refectory.
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Sport Archives
Unknown OKS No. 20: James Gunman (1747-1824) James Gunman entered King’s in 1761 and was a King’s Scholar, but left at Christmas 1762. He came from a notable naval family. His great-grandfather Christopher Gunman (1636-85) was a distinguished naval captain in the reign of Charles II. His grandfather James Gunman (1677-1756) was another Captain, who was later Treasurer of the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich. The father Christopher Gunman (1714-81) was Collector of Customs at Dover. The family was very wealthy, partly through successful marriages. James’s grandmother was an heir of Edward Wivell, Navy victualler and six times Mayor of Dover, who brought the manor of Buckland and other properties in Kent. James’s mother Essex was a daughter of Norton Hanson, a descendant of Sir Thomas Norton, bringing further properties in Coventry and in Thorpe in Yorkshire. James succeeded his father as Collector of Customs in 1773, was a Jurat of Dover and three times Mayor of the town. He extended the family house in Biggin Street and bought further properties in Kent, including in Shepherdswell, He attended a few meetings of the School Feast Society, but did not become a regular member. In 1805 James finally married and it was his wife’s fortune that secured James a place in William Rubinstein’s biographical directory Who were the Rich (1809-39)? His bride was Sarah, the daughter and heir of Edward Hussey Delaval (1729-1814), a Fellow of the Royal Society who features in the Dictionary of National Biography as a natural philosopher and musician and who was soon to be the owner of Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire. The couple lived in Dover and were prominent in the town’s social life; their status being recognised when John Lyon’s History of the Town and Port of Dover (1813) was dedicated to James. Sarah was a talented musician as well as a benefactor to local good causes, including the new building for the Queen Street Charity School in Dover, which opened in 1820, and the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. With the death of James in 1824, the Gunman family died out. He left all 18 OKS OFFCUTS Autumn 2017
Sarah Gunman c1805 by Thomas Lawrence; by kind permission of Doddington Hall his property to his wife, but she died less than a year later. There are fine memorials to them both in St Mary the Virgin Church. Sarah’s will left a life interest in her property to her mother, but when Sarah Hussey Delaval died in 1829, her estate was to go to the younger Sarah’s friend Colonel George Ralph Payne Jarvis (1774-1851), who had been an army officer and later a banker based in Dover. Jarvis had married Philadelphia Blackwell in 1802, but she died in 1816, and it is George’s family therefore who inherited the Gunman-Delaval fortune. Doddington Hall is still owned by relatives of George Jarvis and the Hall and Gardens are open to the public. There are several Gunman and Delaval family portraits there, including a fine
one of Sarah by Thomas Lawrence (illustrated here), as well as Sarah’s Broadwood piano, a birthday present from her father with instructions about looking after it. Most of the Gunman family papers are now in the Lincolnshire Archives. James’s brother Christopher, who was at King’s from 1761 to 1763, was unable to emulate the naval heroics of his ancestors or the worldly success of his sibling. Having been to the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, he served on board the sloop Cruizer and then on HMS Trident. In 1774 he was involved as a second in a fatal duel in Gibraltar, was detained and sent home for court martial. He died at sea in May 1775 shortly after his 26th birthday. The OKS Magazine
Sport
OKS GOLF
The OKS Halford Hewitt team this year lacked a few regulars but welcomed back others. The competition was played in glorious weather all week and, with two schools in the final who had not previously won the event, a first time winner was guaranteed. Both defeated many more fancied teams on the way to the “Masters Sunday” final, with Epsom beating Ampleforth. King’s had a comfortable victory in the first round against City of London and faced a strong Loretto side in the 2nd round. James Fox and Mark Healy played in the top match and their recent form justified this. They had a close match with the lead changing a number of times eventually finishing 18 holes all square. Nick and his son, Ali, Lyons played in the second match and came up against a very strong pair, as did our 4th pair of Matt Ferrari-Wells and Henry Nichol. With two matches lost we needed to win the
remaining three. The third pair of Tom Caney and Olly Baker were the comeback kids, fighting back strongly. Their determination rewarded them with a putt to win the match on the 18th; alas, it stayed out so they too finished all square after 18 holes. The final match was an old pairing of the team skipper Nick Bragg and local anaesthetist, Jonny Hudsmith. Their local knowledge, both being members of Royal St George’s, held them in good stead, but they were up against two younger, longer and stronger golfers. The match swung both ways and with King’s holding a two hole lead with 6 to go, much was expected, but the younger opponents finished strongly and closed
OKS HOCKEY Following some close encounters over previous years, the OKS hockey took recruitment very seriously and fielded a star-studded team from a variety of different school years. All was going to plan at half time after Matt Barker calmly finished a one-on-one and Patrick Mitchell doubled the lead with a smart finish in the bottom corner. Will Heywood put the OKS 3-0 up early in the second half, but we started to dwindle from then on in. The OKS’ lack of fitness was evident which allowed the King’s XI to hit the OKS on the
counter and capitalise on various silly errors. With the score 4-3 to the OKS, a short corner was awarded to the School on the last play of the game. It was a scrappy affair with bodies flinging themselves around the D. Despite great defensive efforts, the ball found itself in the back of the OKS goal, and the game ended at 4-4. It was a great game played in fantastic spirit. Congratulations to the School, as that comeback took a lot of gumption. Patrick Mitchell (LN 2004-09) OKS Men’s Sports Rep.
King’s out 2/1. The two halved matches had been waiting for some time of news of the final match, and with no news forthcoming, proceeded down the 19th only to be called in once the result was known. In Halford Hewitt tradition both took halved matches, once the overall match result was determined, and so the overall result was 4:1. Our appearances in the semi-final in 2014 and final in 2015 have been hard to equal, but the team is not lacking much to repeat these performances. We all look forward to next year. Nick Bragg (GL 1973-78) OKS Halford Hewitt Captain
The Boat Club Dinner 2017
L-R John Williamson Director of Rowing, Phelan Hill, Freddie Allinson
The Canterbury Pilgrims Boat Club and the King’s School welcomed guest of honour Olympian and GB Men’s VIII Cox Phelan Hill as guest speaker at Birley’s Pavilion on 9 September. Successes for 2016-17 included Freddie Allinson’s (SH 2012-17) gold for Great Britain on both days of the Coupe de la Jeunesse (European Junior Rowing Championships) as part of the coxless four. www.oks.org.uk
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Sport
OKS SAILING-
Claude at the helm
The last shall be first... This year’s Round the Island Race was blessed with sunshine and hugely enjoyable perfect sailing conditions. The annual competition, initiated and perpetuated by MO Housemaster Richard Ninham (“R2”), between the Pupils, Parents and OKS Boats, was affected by tragi-comedic circumstances. TRAGIC because the Parents Boat sailed without a full complement of crew by leaving behind former King’s History Master and sailing instructor Dr. Richard Maltby (“R1”) the prime mover of all pupil and OKS sailing activities and founder member of the OKS Sailing Club. His omission due to a series of misunderstandings and misinformation meant that the Parents Boat sailed without a full crew and was considered technically disqualified to race – a bitter blow for R1.
COMIC, for the OKS Boat, because its skipper and navigator had omitted to read and take in an unexpected change in the annual Sailing Instructions which had shortened the starting line by the stationing of a small boat a few yards below the usual buoy which is used to mark the top end of the start line, and the OKS Boat’s failure to cross the start line below the little boat meant that we were deemed not to have started at all! On timing for the Round the Island course, the OKS Boat was the fastest of the three; without R1, the Parents Boat’s corrected timing (to compensate its handicap), was second, and the Pupils Boat with R2 on board was last. So that, at the Prize Giving Ceremony, after a magnificent BBQ on the roof of the Island Sailing Club organised as usual by OKS Howard Fair, R2 was delighted to present the ancient 597 trophy to the Pupils Boat as the only
one to have completed the course without disqualification! But ALL except poor R1 had a wonderful time and a memorable and fantastic day’s sailing. Claude Fielding (MO 1940-41) (Ancient Mariner, Quarter Master and Navigator of the OKS Boat)
OKS Rugby Patrick Clews (SH 2008-13) and Freddy Clode (TR 200611) organised and captained an Under 25 and Over 25 team respectively on September 9 2017 at Birley’s Playing Field. This was no ordinary game but a match in memory of Bernie Cocksworth and to raise funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. The score was 12-7 to the over 25s and the funds raised that day pushed the donations on Bernie’s Just Giving page over £25k! An enjoyable day and a fantastic fundraising result to boot. If you would like to donate, please go to justgiving.com/fundraising/bernie-cocksworth
L-R Patrick Clews, Freddy Clode 20 OKS OFFCUTS Autumn 2017
The OKS Magazine